Side Story 27. The Three Newcomers (4)

Around the time when the second test had ended and before the third test began.
Before they went to the place where the Mixed Illusion Formation had been prepared, Son Hee-il approached the Golden Needle Phantom.

“Martial Ancestor.”
“Hm?”

He asked in a low voice so the other disciples would not hear.

“What exactly are you trying to do?”

Son Hee-il asked with a serious expression.
In truth, it was ridiculous enough to begin with that they were temporarily deciding seniority through tests.
Given Azure Forest’s nature, even if it did rank disciples by entrance examinations, this case was a little different.
Were they not outer disciples?
Those three were, without question, Yi-gang’s disciples, and it was a stretch to divide their order with tests thrown together this suddenly.

And that was not the only problem.

“It doesn’t look like you’re even grading them properly.”

That was how it looked to Son Hee-il.
Azure Forest’s entrance examinations were highly structured, and their grading criteria were finely detailed.
But the Golden Needle Phantom didn’t seem all that intent on comparing the three of them in detail.

“And what is this nonsense about eleven points out of ten?”
“Heh heh heh, so you noticed.”
“Yes. Anyone with eyes would notice.”
“Don’t worry. I know exactly what I’m doing.”
“If you say so.”

So Son Hee-il stayed quiet.
If Do-gyeon, the Golden Needle Phantom, said he had something in mind, then he did.

“Hah!”

Of course, Tsering then shattered the Mixed Illusion Formation with the Lion’s Roar.

“Euhaha, out of ten points, that’s a hundred!”

And when the Golden Needle Phantom roared with laughter and said that, it had been a little suspicious.

At last, all three tests came to an end.
The result was absurdly extreme.
In all three tests, a different one of them had stood out in turn.
And each time, the one taking the test smashed whatever had been prepared, so the other two were not even given a chance.

Strictly speaking, that meant the three were tied.
So how was the Golden Needle Phantom going to divide their order?

“Then who is Master Yi-gang’s first disciple?”
“Well, like I said at the start, that is something that should first be asked of Yi-gang himself.”

The Golden Needle Phantom spoke slowly with pomp.
He seemed to be enjoying the sight of the children all wound up with tension.

“Hm, yes. I’ve already made my judgment.”

Then the Golden Needle Phantom raised a finger.
And the tip of that finger pointed to…

“Cheongho. You are the eldest. Their senior brother.”

“……!”

Everyone was greatly startled.
Cheongho didn’t show it, but the other two looked as though they could not believe the result.
Even if the scores had only been thrown out casually, Cheongho had received 10 out of 10, while Baek Sang-ye and Tsering had gotten 11 and 100 respectively, had they not?

But the Golden Needle Phantom’s decision did not waver.

“And after that comes Baek Sang-ye, and after her, Tsering. That is the order.”
“No…”
“This is the judgment I, Do-gyeon, your Grandmaster, have made through sound analysis, so follow it without complaint.”

The Golden Needle Phantom spoke in a stern voice.
Tsering and Baek Sang-ye each seemed dissatisfied, but they couldn’t quite bring themselves to argue and only opened and closed their mouths.
At that, the Golden Needle Phantom grinned.

“Wondering what my criteria were?”
“Yes!”

He was remarkably skilled at tightening and releasing the tension.
It was the way a seasoned physician handled people.
But Baek Sang-ye and Tsering, still immature, did not realize that the Golden Needle Phantom was playing with them.

“Alright, I’ll explain. First, what I considered important was how much the three of you followed Yi-gang’s orthodoxy.”
“Orthodoxy…!”
“Yi-gang is an Honor Flower Disciple. You already know about Martial Flower Disciples, Taoist Flower Disciples, and Honor Flower Disciples, yes?”

Cheongho did not really seem to know, but the other two nodded.
Martial Flower Disciples were disciples who devoted themselves to Azure Forest’s martial arts.
They were those for whom martial talent mattered above all else.
Taoist Flower Disciples were those who devoted themselves to mystic arts. Concentration and the sense to handle spiritual power were important.
And Honor Flower Disciples had to display talent in both martial arts and mystic arts alike.
Their upper dantian had to be more open than others’, and they had to be sensitive to spiritual things and yokai energy.

“Of the three tests, the first and the last were meant to judge Honor Flower Disciples. And the second test was a common one taken by all disciples.”

The Golden Needle Phantom pointed at Baek Sang-ye, whose face had gone pale.

“Your internal energy may be exceptional for your age, but that does not mean it suits the aptitude of an Honor Flower Disciple.”

By contrast, Cheongho, who had found and suppressed the Ink-Eating Worms, had clearly shown talent fit for an Honor Flower Disciple.
There was also something noteworthy about Tsering, who had broken the formation with a sound technique filled with the power to dispel evil and reveal truth.

“Then why am I last?”

Tsering asked as though the result was absurd.
Even so, if that were the case, should Tsering not have been second and Baek Sang-ye the youngest?
But the Golden Needle Phantom had said the opposite.

“Listen to the end first. That temper of yours, you’ve got the sort of temperament that would make being a senior martial sister difficult.”
“……”
“That brat Yi-gang may have been an Honor Flower Disciple, but before any talk of flower colors, he was an Azure Forest disciple. Do you understand what I mean?”

The Golden Needle Phantom’s point was entirely reasonable.

“Unfortunately, it seems you have not learned Azure Forest’s martial arts in the slightest. You haven’t even learned the Baek Clan’s martial arts, for that matter…”
“Ah…!”

That was true.
Before even getting into the matter of the hair tie Yi-gang had given as a token, Tsering had not actually learned martial arts from Yi-gang.
What she had learned were the martial arts of Shaolin and Potala Palace.
Even if Yi-gang himself had learned some Shaolin Fist, in terms of Azure Forest’s ‘orthodoxy,’ Tsering fell short.

“By contrast, both Cheongho and Sang-ye clearly show signs of having learned Azure Forest’s martial arts….”

Baek Sang-ye had learned in the imperial palace, while Cheongho could imitate Yi-gang’s martial arts through sheer astonishing talent.

“The order is Cheongho, Baek Sang-ye, then Tsering. Understood?”

No objections came.
That did not mean everyone was satisfied with the result, of course.
Baek Sang-ye and Tsering each held the same thought in their hearts.

‘Someday, if we ask Yi-gang himself, the result might be different.’

So for now, they followed the Golden Needle Phantom without complaint.

“From this point on, you will belong to the Grand Library here and learn the foundations of being disciples of Azure Forest.”

Whatever the case, they had now become disciples of Azure Forest.
Each of them had come with different intentions, but it was what all of them had wanted.

“Devote yourselves to training and learning, and become Azure Forest disciples who will not bring shame upon your master or your sect.”

The Golden Needle Phantom’s voice rang clearly through the library.
The eyes of the three newcomers began to shine brightly.

“Ah, and one more thing.”

The Golden Needle Phantom added lightly.

“If there is anything you want to say to Yi-gang, say it.”
“What?”
“I intend to send him a letter informing him that you have come to Azure Forest, and ask after his well-being.”

It seemed Azure Forest knew Yi-gang’s exact whereabouts.
At those words, the three eagerly began saying what they wanted conveyed.
It would still take quite a while before Yi-gang received that letter, but that hardly mattered.

Mount Heng was one of the Five Great Peaks.
The Five Great Peaks were the five most famous and revered mountains in all the Central Plains.
Mount Heng, where Azure Forest stood, was a great mountain worthy of being counted among them.

Across the blessed terrain of Mount Heng, filled with numinous energy, Azure Forest’s halls were scattered.
Rather than being clustered tightly together, Azure Forest’s buildings were somewhat spread apart.
The Heavenly Dao Training Ground, where the three newcomers mainly trained, was also located a little apart from the Five Flower Grand Library.

Despite its grand name, the Heavenly Dao Training Ground was little more than an open lot that was rarely used.
That was also why the three newcomers, who had suddenly entered as outer disciples, were able to train there.

And the hall from whose windows one could look out over the Heavenly Dao Training Ground was Mountain Bright Pavilion.
It was also where Daoists who did not cultivate martial arts stayed, and at times guests of Azure Forest lodged there as well.

“Mm…”

And So-ryu, too, stayed in Mountain Bright Pavilion.
So-ryu was not the only one who had come along with the three newcomers.
Geum Yang-bae of the Golden Measure Merchant Guild had come along with Tsering, and the bandit Jang Man-chun had as well.
Geum Yang-bae had no choice but to return to his livelihood, but Jang Man-chun was still here, living off Azure Forest’s meals.

So-ryu, who had been assigned by the imperial palace to guard Baek Sang-ye, naturally had to remain here.
She looked out the window toward the Heavenly Dao Training Ground.
She had never imagined Baek Sang-ye would end up with two fellow disciples.
Naturally, she had many worries.
Baek Sang-ye might have appeared sociable on the surface, but in truth, her personality could not be called especially good.

Now she had gained a senior martial brother named Cheongho and a younger fellow disciple named Tsering, and So-ryu could not help but worry whether she would get along with them.
And then there was Cheongho, whose thoughts no one could ever read, and Tsering, who seemed to lack dignity and manners.
At a glance, the three seemed to have personalities that would be hard to harmonize.

“They’re getting along well enough…”

Yet the rhythm among the three as they trained in the Heavenly Dao Training Ground fit together fairly well.
Today, it seemed they were training Azure Forest’s Cloud Treading.
It was a training method in which several iron stakes, thin enough to be hard to step upon, were driven into the ground, and one practiced movement arts atop them.

The stakes, which had originally only risen a finger-joint’s height above the ground, grew taller with each passing day.
Now, two months after training began, the stakes had risen to nearly the height of a person.
The three newcomers moved across the stakes as though running on solid ground.

“Oh.”

Then Tsering fell.
As she fell, Tsering grabbed hold of Baek Sang-ye’s sleeve.
Naturally, Baek Sang-ye fell with her.

“Are they fighting again…”

And Baek Sang-ye and Tsering began bickering.
Cheongho, despite being the senior martial brother, did not step in to stop them and instead simply watched the two blankly.

So-ryu let out a deep sigh.
In truth, whether Baek Sang-ye got along with her fellow disciples or not was not something So-ryu needed to worry much about.
So-ryu would stay at Baek Sang-ye’s side, and before long Baek Sang-ye was due to return to the imperial palace.
But right now, the situation was not one that allowed her to feel at ease.

‘Will she be alright even without me?’

Not long ago, So-ryu had received a message from the imperial palace.
When an Embroidered Uniform guard came all the way to Azure Forest to deliver it, So-ryu had been deeply shocked.
It contained a direct order.

‘Return to Beijing alone.’

A red knot had been tied to the letter.
It meant it was an imperial order issued directly by the Emperor.
Was she truly being ordered to return alone while leaving the imperial princess behind?
She asked the Embroidered Uniform guardsman, but he could not answer.
And in the midst of that, a letter also arrived from the Baek Clan.
It was a personal letter sent by Baek Ryu-san himself.
It too said that she should come to Beijing.

‘This feels ominous.’

Unless the matter was serious, they would not have summoned So-ryu.
She had even suspected the personal letter might be forged, but it was not.

‘If she’s within Azure Forest’s protection… she’ll be alright.’

In all the world, aside from the imperial palace, Azure Forest was one of the safest places there was.
So-ryu forcefully cast off her worries.
When her mind grew this tangled, she still often found herself thinking of her older sister.

So-ryu thought of her sister.
So-hwa.
How was the soul of the sister who had left this world at an age far younger than her current one now faring?

So-ryu dressed herself properly and packed her belongings.
She had already told Baek Sang-ye in advance, but she thought she should say goodbye one more time before leaving.

When she approached the Heavenly Dao Training Ground.
She heard the sound of squabbling.

“Hey!”
“Yes, Senior Martial Sister.”
“I told you not to talk back to me!”

Baek Sang-ye and Tsering were arguing.

“I wasn’t talking back!”
“You’re doing it right now!”
“You talk back to Senior Martial Brother too, Sis!”
“Kuh…”

Baek Sang-ye, who normally hid her feelings so well, was openly simmering as she argued.
To So-ryu, that sight looked rather good.

‘She’ll be fine.’

She would definitely be alright.
Thinking that, So-ryu turned away.

She departed once more for Beijing.
Baek Sang-ye was a little downhearted after learning So-ryu had left, but she soon found her smile again.
The three newcomers continued their training, and little by little, they adapted to Azure Forest and to one another.